Social Stratification Seminar Winter 1997 BELL CURVE RESEARCH REDONE: COGNITIVE AND OTHER DETERMINANTS OF SOCIOECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENT Prof. David D. McFarland 257 Haines Hall (310)825-6380; messages 825-1313 mcfarland@soc.ucla.edu http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/mcfarland "The Bell Curve" has been, among other things, a media event that included a lot of heated ideological rhetoric from both right and left. But underlying the media event was a more-often-cited-than- read book that also reported empirical research utilizing the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY). The book, "The Bell Curve", by Herrnstein and Murray, is about the determinants of who experiences various types of outcomes, including such key stratification outcomes as educational dropout and poverty status. Among the various determinants, cognitive ability was singled out for particular attention, and Herrnstein and Murray's empirical analysis utilized the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) scores available in the NLSY data. Many critics have claimed the research is flawed, but only a few have undertaken to redo it correctly. The latter will be our focus this quarter. Readings will be in a number of sources, but the main one is: Fischer, Claude S., Michael Hout, Martin Sanchez Jankowski, Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swidler, and Kim Voss. 1996. Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. We will be asking repeatedly: What did Herrnstein and Murray do in their analysis of the data? What did the critic do differently in the redone analysis? What difference did it make in the substantive conclusions? And what basis is there for choosing one over the other? Each student will: (a) take turn leading the class in discussion of weekly reading assignments; and (b) regularly read the weekly assignments and participate in those discussions; and (c) prepare a paper on a topic to be approved in advance by the professor, dealing with some subset of the following course topics: 1. Overview. What's at issue in Bell Curve debates? What's actually in the book*? 2. Review of prior socioeconomic achievement studies that included AFQT or similar variables. 3. Measurement issues. Aptitude for further schooling, result of prior schooling, or what? 4. Multiple logistic regression. How to read the results. Dependence of results on data, assumptions. Limitations of this and other non-experimental techniques. Alternatives. 5. Comparison of corresponding results from Herrnstein, critics. Discrepancies as errors, or as alternative interpretations? If the latter, what would be required to settle between the alternatives? 6. Summary and Conclusions. _____ * One point should be made at the outset: contrary to widespread but mistaken notions, the Herrnstein and Murray book is not primarily, nor even to any considerable extent, about race. Neither is the Fischer et al. book, nor this course. ----- Enrollment and Meeting Times. (Depending on enrollment, these may be combined for the main seminar meetings, with graduate students having individual meetings with the professor for discussions pertaining to their research.) Soc. 197g. 347-852-200. Tues 3:00-5:50, Franz 1354. Soc. 263. 747-378-200. Thur 5:00-7:50, Haines 144. ----- References: Fischer, Claude S., Michael Hout, Martin Sanchez Jankowski, Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swidler, and Kim Voss. 1996. Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. 0-691-02898-2 paper BF 431 I513 1996 (url) Herrnstein, Richard J., and Charles Murray. 1994. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life. New York: Free Press. 0-684-82429-9 paper. BF 431 H398 1994 (url, college, law) Contemporary Sociology. March 1995 issue. Reviews of Herrnstein and Murray, by Robert M. Hauser; Howard F. Taylor; Troy Duster. Fraser, Steven, ed. 1995. The Bell Curve Wars: Race, Intelligence, and the Future of America. New York: Basic Books. 0-465-00693-0 paper. BF 431 B3749 1995 (url, college) Goldberger, Arthur S., and Charles F. Manski. 1995. "Review Article: The Bell Curve by Herrnstein and Murray." Journal of Economic Literature 33 (June): 762-776. (mgt lib working paper collection) Heckman, James J. 1995. "Lessons from The Bell Curve." Journal of Political Economy 103 (October): 1091-1120. HB 1 J82 (url, college) Jacoby, Russell, and Naomi Glauberman, eds. 1995. The Bell Curve Debate: History, Documents, Opinions. New York: Random House/Times Books. 0-8129-2587-4 paper. BF 431 B3748 1995 (url, law) Korenman, Sanders, and Christopher Winship. 1995. "A Reanalysis of the Bell Curve." NBER Working Paper Series, no. 5230. Cambridge MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.